wedgeSG

This may be a "fit" question but thought I'd start where the majority of similar components would be found. My wife who is 5'6" has a Giant Thrive in a "small" or 16.5 size. It has a 27.4" standover, a 21.3" top tube, and seems to fit her very well. She mentioned that she was experiencing pressure and numbness in her hands. We scheduled a fitting at a LBS that has a good reputation for that service, and they did the corrections based on her feedback and their observations. She left feeling progress had been made. Still, she notes that numbness is evident, although not nearly as much as it was before. Basically it looked as if they put her in a more upright position in addition to locating her cleats on the pedals. I don't remember the exact adjustments but they seemed to have been in the right directions. Since she is still experiencing discomfort I started looking at the bike. It just looks like the stock, flat bars are really wide on the bike. (maybe they aren't- hence this thread) Is it likely or possible that having too much span could be the source of her remaining problems comfort wise? The bar is the original Thrive component with ergo grips and short extensions that measures 22" just inboard of the extensions. The Thrive is called a flat bar road bike with a fitness geometry. For a women's small frame bicycle, (not XS), does 22" handlebar width seem about right, or what would be expected? Thanks to any and all who respond to this with information or advice.

themishmosh

22" seems fine.

Going back to the numbness part, it is probably one of the top two complaints in bicycling. Even with optimal fit, people will still complain of numbess, particularly the longer they ride. A more upright position helps, but you might also try ergonomic grips with a flatter platform to lay your hand on. Learning to change hand positions is also recommended. It's why many of us have bar ends so as to add to the number of hand positions possible. A pair of nice padded gloves is also helpful.

linnefaulk

I have a Trek 820 with stand riser bars. I find that my hands feel better when they are closer together. The wide bars are good for handling when riding trails. But if you doing more paved roads, you don't need to have them so wide. You can move the brakes and gears inward and see if that helps. If it does, you can trim the bars.

browngw 

mrs browngw has had similar position problems over the years and more as we age. The solution came in changing the bars to something that angles back a bit on all three of her bikes. The angle allows the wrist to relax and the elbows to stay in a bit. Shown here is her Giant Cypress with curved "European" bars, shortened to 21". She has used the flat ergon type grips since a wrist injury.

mcmoose

My Trek FX 7.3 WSD bars are 23.5" from the end of one ergo grip to the other (it's a 17.5" step-through frame). This is only 1/2" shorter than the bars on my husband's 21" FX 7.2. And it's a lot wider than the drop-bars on my Trek Lexa S (17.5"). Especially for longer rides, I find the drop bars more comfortable. In addition to the multiple hand positions, I think having my hands more-or-less an even width as my shoulder helps. Like your wife, I tend to have to reach outward for the hybrid bars.

I hope the above suggestions are helpful for your wife. The only time I appreciate the wide grip on my hybrid is on bumpy trails.

simplybao

Have her change to another bar that isn't straight. Get something with some back sweep to it. I was having numbness and I switched to an FSA Metropolis and I LOVE it. The farthest I've gone is 20 miles in one sitting but I used to get numbness well before then. I'm 5'6" and male though, and can't really answer your question about width.

There are plenty of companies that make these types of bars. Check out Rivendell bikes, they sell some bars. And then there is also SoMA fab.

Wanderer

Ergonomic grips help a lot, by taking all that pressure off your wrists, and helping hold your hands in a more natural position. Even small bar ends, like Specialized composit ones make a huge difference by allowing more hand positions. Padded bicycle gloves also help hold hands in a natural position. Has she tried any of these?

Where, and how, does she have to hold her hands in a "natural" position. Try to mimic that. MHO

wedgeSG

Thanks so much for the replies and insights thus far. Since posting this I have discussed my thoughts on narrowing the bars with her and she seems to find some merit with my ideas. The Thrive bar is straight and without any rise or backsweep. Platformed grips were standard and have not been changed. Short bar ends were also part of the original setup and other than an adjustment remain as well. She does move onto the bar ends occasionally while riding. Since having the fit done, I'm somewhat reluctant to begin addressing this further via a bar change. She did notice an improvement, (reduction of numbness severity), after the fit. Padded gloves helped a bit more, and were also implemented post fitting. While narrowing the bar may necessitate another round of moving stuff about at the LBS; I'm trying to keep moving her toward increased comfort in tested steps. I assume any width reduction is going to help but there just isn't a whole lot of available space on the tube. If I lop an inch off each side, it's still gonna be wider than my 46 road bar. That fact in and of itself is what got me to thinking along these lines. Again the Thrive is said to be a flat bar road bike, it looks very similar to other women's Giant road frames. The wheels are PR-2's with PR-3 tires in a 700 x 28 size. Not exactly trail hoppers, so I don't think the leverage is critical. Planning a ride day soon, and I'm going to tape some sort of block against the bar end to effectively keep her hands moved an inch toward the center L and R. If another reduction in fatigue or discomfort is noted...I'll break out the Dremel tool.

headloss 

In my experience, bars are almost always too wide. I haven't paid any attention to the original size, but I'd say on average I remove about 30mm from each side on the stalk handlebar setup. I've done this three times now for female friends and they all preferred the bar afterwords. None of them were complaining about numbness though... which in my experience is usually caused by a saddle positioned too far forward.